A congressional commission on Tuesday asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the role of Beijing after protesters claimed they were beaten and harassed by Chinese government agents in San Francisco last month during an official visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The protesters, who were defending the rights of Hong Kong, Tibet and ethnic Uighurs, said that their attackers’ attire, coordination and strong reaction to rhetoric critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) indicated official Chinese involvement.
US officials have previously accused Chinese operatives of targeting people in the US.
Photo: AP
US Representative Chris Smith, who chairs the Congressional Executive Commission on China, said that it was demanding a thorough investigation to “find out why all of these wonderful people who were peacefully protesting were hit with poles, have scars that now you know will not go away.”
The Chinese embassy denied any involvement and instead accused the protesters of violence.
The embassy said that people had voluntarily traveled to San Francisco to welcome Xi and show their support for the stabilization of US-China relations as Xi and US President Joe Biden met on the sidelines of the annual APEC summit, but they were met with violence by “rioters.”
The embassy also demanded an investigation.
The commission said that it would ask the justice department to determine whether the violence against the protesters was part of an operation by the CCP and whether the civil rights of the protesters were violated.
What is known as transnational repression, by which foreign governments seek to hush their overseas critics through threats and assaults, has raised concerns in Washington.
The worry is that actions by foreign governments such as China can jeopardize civil rights in the US.
Zhang Kaiyu (張開宇), a 51-year-old Chinese dissident who fled to the US in March, was among those beaten in south San Francisco by a group of Chinese men on Nov. 17.
He said that his attackers either wore red headbands or had red scarves attached to their jackets and they grew aggressive when Zhang insulted the CCP.
He called it an “organized crime” backed by the party and said it left him afraid of further retaliation from Beijing.
“I feel not safe anymore, even in the US, which was unthinkable before the assault,” Zhang said.
Pema Doma, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said the repression had intensified, with far more pro-Beijing protesters in San Francisco than on previous, similar occasions.
She said they also acted more aggressively than in the past.
Doma cited one case when what seemed like an organized group violently jerked away a banner from Tibetan students, at the risk of causing the students to fall off the fifth floor of a building.
Anna Kwok (郭鳳儀), executive director of the Washington-based-Hong Kong Democracy Council, said she was targeted by pro-Beijing accounts when she announced her arrival in San Francisco on X.
Kwok said she received threats to her life as well as verbal abuse.
Kwok, who fled Hong Kong in the wake of a crackdown on demonstrations in 2019, said she no longer felt safe continuing her advocacy work in the US after witnessing violence against fellow protesters in San Francisco.
The Chinese embassy said those who went to San Francisco to welcome Xi were victims of “multiple incidents of provocations and violent attacks” that caused injuries to dozens of people, including women and elderly people.
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